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Insurer Steps Up to Cover Only the Ohio County Without Private Option

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CARESOURCE

The last county in the nation faced with having no provider offering private insurance on  the Affordable Care Act exchange was in Ohio. But now people in that northwest Ohio county have an option.

Paulding County, on the Indiana border, was the only so-called “bare” county without an insurer offering coverage under Obamacare. Department of Insurance Director Jillian Froment says Dayton-based Caresource has agreed to provide insurance under the federal exchange for the next year.

“ We simply asked for a one year, basically a band-aid, to try to address our concerns while the federal government works on something that’s more permanent.

Anthem had dropped out of Ohio’s Obamacare marketplace in June, leaving 20 counties faced with the prospect of no optios next year.

Last month, five insurers stepped in to offer coverage in all but Paulding County. With this announcement, every county in the U.S. will have at least one health insurer offering coverage through the ACA exchanges next year.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.